29 September 2010

i don't doubt it at all --- i know much more about christianity than most christians, that's for sure --- one of my favorite tomes is belcher's the religious denominations in the united states: their history, doctrine, government, and statistics, with a preliminary sketch of judaism, paganism and mohammedanishm, published in 1854, the full text of which is on line here --- it is a magnificent display of the anarchy of religious beliefs ---

28 September 2010

the bristlecone pines are the oldest trees in the world, some nearly 5,000 years old and have always been one of my favorites --- i saw some in utah that i'm sure weren't that old, but they were impressive anyway, just for being able to live and grow under the most extreme conditions --- pine beetles and rust could do them in

26 September 2010

above the loew's hotel are several floors of condos, the last to be finished of the current crop, just as the economy was going to shit --- but the open door midway up (center rear) and the furniture on the balcony says that they have finally sold at least one ---

the rains came, although i'm surprised at the number of die-hards with umbrellas --- very few of the vendors have closed up yet --- in addition to the porta-potties and atms, there are now, for your convenience, portable sinks

23 September 2010

of the two transmission towers on the hill at tenth and spring, the tallest was not being used and i think had been condemned --- it's slowly coming down --- that's it on the left in july --- it was exceptionally tall for an unguyed tower

guinness and dexter love them some company --- a lot of the time when my phone rings, it is a visitor calling for for me to buzz them in, so that whenever the phone rings, the boys head for the hall, more or less as you see them here --- they'll hang around for five or ten minutes before deciding it's a false alarm ---

22 September 2010

ma was born this day in 1921 --- we wished her a happy birthday down there --- nice rain as i was leaving town, with a rainbow as i passed the airport --- tonight is the equinox and there's a full moon going on too

20 September 2010

i've had the kindle for a little over two weeks now, and i gotta say that i really like it --- i'm reading a lot more of the times and the constitution, the latter of which i rarely read at all --- it is so much easier to skim the headlines, even if you don't get every single thing (ads!) that you get in the dead-tree version ---however, the kindle may have made my reading even more indiscriminate than it's always been --- e.g., normally i would not be inclined to think about reading sherman's memoirs of the civil war, since military history is not my thing, but there it was for 99 cents or something, so i downloaded it right after i did charles dickens and thomas hardy, the complete works of whom i acquired digitally for 2.99 each --- sherman's memoirs turn out to be quite interesting, and he himself comes through as an extremely intelligent, well-educated, and civilized soul, that somehow the scraggly-ass photographs of him during the civil war don't quite convey --- he was in california in the late 1840s, just as the gold rush was getting underway, and his account of that is the best of the whole thing ---anyway, if you are a total pervert about reading the way i am, you probably need one --- no more lugging a book around and having to have both hands free to use it --- i can walk the dog and read now, should i choose to take my multi-tasking to that level --- amazon really need to work on their formatting and proofing, but i can trade some crappy formatting and some typos for the convenience

i like it when my lists look like this --- clean dog, reasonably clean house, restocked on roots and berries, wo' out tires (peeling tread wo' out) replaced, this, that, and the other add up to an unwasted weekend all in all, even if i've been too lazy to walk over to the arts festival, but that's mainly because the dog is not welcome there --- i'm generally ready for the upcoming week, which will include the fall equinox on wednesday, september 22, at 11:09 pm ---

it was a great night at callonwolde, benefiting homeless kitty cats and puppy dogs --- it is difficult to believe that forty years ago, the house sat vacant and homeless people were building fires on the floors --- however, i really really hate the way they have enclosed the wonderful colonnaded courtyard that was at the center of the house's u-shaped plan

17 September 2010

15 September 2010

switch it to full-screen to watch --- what it doesn't do is explain exactly why these guys needed to get to the top of a 1768' antenna --- if you are afraid of high places, you might not enjoy it so well

14 September 2010

they've started work on the new arden's garden at p'tree place and crescent --- it will be good to have a little activity on that corner --- the cereal bowl should be announcing soon for the small storefront next door on p'tree place

12 September 2010

a great way to treat this intersection --- meanwhile, the city of atlanta has stupidly messed up all the great semi-roundabouts at va-highland and all through morningside, turning them into conventional stop-sign intersections

the company that is managing the atlanta housing authority's juniper10th highrise for the elderly has apparently received recovery act money to renovate --- built in the early 1970s, it probably needs renovation --- without it, we would have many fewer walkers and wheelchairs on the sidewalks, which are a critical part of the ambience of midtown

it looks to be nearing completion, all bright white, stainless steel, and glass facing peachtree --- it actually encompasses three historic buildings, only one of which (the Touch of India building at the southeast corner of twelfth and peachtree) had any integirty as a piece of architectureby the time all this work started --- in fact the building was relatively unaltered, the last intact, early-twentieth-century commercial building remaining on peachtree in midtown, excepting the fine commercial row just south of the margaret mitchell house. which has been landmarked by the city and is, theoretically, there for the duration ---

neighborhood activists have led us to expect murder and mayhem as soon as the club opens

broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime― mark twain

truly, what of good

ever have prophets brought to men?

craft of many words,

only through

evil your message speaks.

seers bring aye

terror, so to keep

men afraid.

―

aeschylus

he cannot be a gentleman which loveth not a dog.

john northbrooke, c. 1570

Each of us is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas.

The seed of our destruction will blossom in the desert, the alexin of our cure grows by a mountain rock, and our lives are haunted by a Georgia slattern, because a London cutpurse went unhung. Each moment is the fruit of forty thousand years. The minute-winning days, like flies, buzz home to death, and every moment is a window on all time.

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.

john stuart mill in a letter to conservative mp sir john pakington (march 1866)